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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26966911">Avatar: Scars Of Victory</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreedoDidntShoot/pseuds/GreedoDidntShoot'>GreedoDidntShoot</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Azula (Avatar) Redemption, BAMF Gren (The Dragon Prince), Badass Katara (Avatar), Badass Mai (Avatar), Badass Sokka (Avatar), Badass Toph Beifong, Callum Needs a Hug (The Dragon Prince), Crazy Azula (Avatar), Gen, Rayla Swears (The Dragon Prince), The Gaang gets a new member, Toph Beifong &amp; Zuko Friendship, Zuko has other friends?!, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Zuko's Scar (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:21:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,235</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26966911</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreedoDidntShoot/pseuds/GreedoDidntShoot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Victory comes with a price, to Zuko, this price was victory itself. Only a year into his reign as Fire Lord his sister escaped prison and managed to pull the title right out from under him, convincing the people he had ulterior motives. Now he must reunite with his friends and set out to reclaim his title, once and for all.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang/Katara (Avatar), Amaya &amp; Gren, Azula/Jet (Avatar), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Ezran (The Dragon Prince) and Toph (Avatar), Iroh &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Jet / Wheat, Mai &amp; Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar) &amp; Soren (The Dragon Prince), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), The Gaang (Avatar) &amp; Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Victory Lost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p> </p><p>It had been one year to the day since Zuko had been crowned Fire Lord, one year since he'd last seen his friends, one year since his sister had been institutionalized. And today she had escaped. His footsteps echoed through the halls as he walked across the stone floor, trying to glance over his shoulder but blinded by the sweat pouring off his brow. He stopped outside the war room, or was it the women's room? He couldn't tell because believe it or not, sweat really stings when it gets in your eyes. He tried his luck and pushed the door open, feeling relief when he was greeted by his top Generals instead of a bunch of high-pitched screams.</p><p>"My lord, we need a plan to capture her. I've stationed guards around the castle walls and put the castle on lock down as you commanded, so far they haven't reported anything." One of the Generals said.</p><p>Zuko relaxed a bit. "Get every available soldier you can and sweep the castle. If you find her I want her alive, but use deadly force if needed." He said, trying to sound as calm as possible.</p><p>"Yes sir." The man walked off, taking a team of guards with him.</p><p>"Where is my uncle?" He asked another General.</p><p>The door opened behind him, "I'm fine, nephew." Iroh said. "I came as soon as I heard. Is there anything I can do."</p><p>Zuko let out a sigh of relief, "I could use a cup of tea." He smiled.</p><p>In the course of about ten seconds Iroh had pulled a small teapot, a few cups, teabags and a canteen of water out of his bag. "I thought you'd never ask." He chuckled.</p><p>"You just carry those around wherever you go?" Zuko asked, eyes widening.</p><p>"Yes!" The old man said, as if it were obvious, already boiling the water.</p><p>Zuko nervously paced around the war room, sloshing tea all over the floor.</p><p>"Nephew, please sit down, the small amount of tea you have left is getting cold and the sound of your footsteps are driving me mad." Iroh pleaded.</p><p>"I'll sit when Azula is back in custody. We'll have her soon assuming she didn't escape already, she was insane before and she's even worse now. Being defeated took a huge toll on her, who knows what lengths she'd go to for the throne." He declared, sloshing more tea on the floor. "We need a pla--" He went silent, listening to warning bells banged together.</p><p>A guard slammed the door down, "My lord, the city is on fire!" He gasped, choking on smoke.</p><p>"Evacuate the city get everyone out of here!" Zuko yelled, already rushing outside. His eyes widened as he gazed upon the burning city, "Azula." He scowled.</p><p>In the aftermath of the fire most of the citizens survived, the fire only claimed a few lives, the castle had been burnt to the ground and no one had turned up Azula and former Fire Lord Ozai had gone missing.</p><p>"What now?" Iroh asked, placing his hand on Zuko's shoulder.</p><p>"I need to go to the Southern Water Tribe, I need to find the Avatar and regain my hono--" He looked back at his uncle who gave him a stern glare. "Sorry, force of habit."</p><p>~</p><p>Back in the Southern Water Tribe things were peaceful, Sokka was still running Military drills on the children (who had by now grasped the concept of how swords worked,) Katara and Aang were frequently sneaking off to 'talk,' and the Tribe was enjoying plenty of peace and prosperity now that the men were back from the war. The only problem was that now Aang had recently hit a growth spurt and passed up Sokka by a quarter of an inch and Sokka wasn't having any of it, Katara was though. Sokka also made it part of his weekly (or sometimes hourly) routine to give Aang the overprotective brother speech.</p><p>"Okay Sokka I get it. For the last time I'm not going to so much as breathe near Katara without her consent." Aang said, waiting for Katara to come out save him from this awkward madness.</p><p>"How do I know you're not just telling me what I want to hear?" Sokka pressed, poking Aang in the chest and glaring at him, it felt weird being on an eye-to-eye level with him.</p><p>"You know me! You know I'm not that kind of guy." Aang said.</p><p>Sokka stroked his imaginary beard, "True, true. But I also know teenage boys."</p><p>"Sokka, you are a teenage boy." Aang reminded.</p><p>"What's going on?" Katara asked, walking out of the igloo.</p><p>Sokka stared back at her, trying to think up an explanation. "Nothing, just some casual male bonding." He grabbed Aang around the neck (which he now had to reach up to do) and noogied his bald head. "Isn't that right buddy boy pal?" </p><p>Aang broke free, "Yeah just casual male bonding." He laughed awkwardly before punching Sokka's shoulder perhaps a little too hard. "You look great, Katara." He said, looking over her snow suit.</p><p>"What do you mean? I always wear this." She chuckled.</p><p>"Yeah, right." Aang said awkwardly. "Shall we go?" He asked, gesturing to a walking trail.</p><p>"Sure." Katara answered before noticing a ship on the ocean, a Fire Nation ship, beside it floated an Earth Kingdom ship. "What the heck?" She whispered. "Sokka, come look at this."</p><p>Sokka popped his head out of the igloo, "Nu-uh, I am not letting you trick me into watching <em>another </em>Penguin give birth."</p><p>"Sokka get your sorry butt out here or I swear to Tui and La I <em>will </em>say the F word." Katara demanded.</p><p>Now he knew it was serious, "Okay okay." Sokka caved, "Don't get your thermal underwear in a twist." He looked over the sea, noticing the ships. "That's a royal Fire Nation ship!" He pointed "It must be Zuko." He spotted the ship beside it and nearly collapsed before his eyes jumped out of his head, "THAT'S A KYOSHI ISLAND SHIP!!! IT'S SUKI!!!" He ran around mindlessly in a circle about five times before he collapsed and started making snow angels.</p><p>The trio anxiously waited at the shore until the ships pulled in, a ramp dropped from the first ship and from it descended Zuko, Iroh and Mai.</p><p>Aang rushed up the ramp, tackling Zuko in a hug, "Greetings...." A mischievous grin stretched across his face, "<em>Sifu Hotman."</em> </p><p>Zuko had only been in Aang's presence for two seconds and already felt like murdering him, instead he forced his palm against Aang's forehead and shoved him away. "Hey kid." He smiled and walked down the ramp, only when they were on even ground did he notice Aang's increased height, "You're taller." He said bluntly.</p><p>Aang's face lit up in a toothy grin, "Uh-huh, I passed Sokka up last week!"</p><p>A sense of nervousness washed over Zuko, he suddenly got the feeling that he was next.</p><p>"Hey I'm still not done growing!" Sokka lied. "Oh hey, Zuko." He said casually, leaning against a pile of snow which collapsed.</p><p>The second ship pulled in and from it descended Suki, Ty Lee and Toph.</p><p>"SUKI!!!" Sokka yelled, tackling his girlfriend in a hug. "Wait, this gives me the perfect opportunity to test out my new joke." He whispered, seemingly more to himself than Suki, "<strong><em>WATER </em></strong><em>you doing here!?" </em>He laughed.</p><p>Silence followed along with some random member of the Tribe coughing twice in the background.</p><p>"You-- you get it!? It's funny because we're in the <em>Water </em>Tribe. Eh? Eh?!" He asked, puppy dog eyes gleaming up at his most likely soon-to-be ex-girlfriend</p><p>Ty Lee let out a snicker and Iroh collapsed in laughter, other than that there was no reaction, everyone was actually pretty sure that the joke had petrified Suki who just stood on the ramp, staring into the distance.</p><p>Toph walked down the ramp and on the way punched Sokka extremely hard in the arm, the pain still hadn't died down from Aang's previous punch, "Idiot." She grumbled. "Hey twinkle toes!" She said, punching Aang way less hard than she did Sokka.</p><p>"Hey Toph." He responded.</p><p>"Katara." She said dryly.</p><p>"Toph." Katara said equally dryly. A few seconds later they burst into laughter, squeezing each other in a hug.</p><p>"Hello again, Toph." Iroh said.</p><p>"Uncle Iroh!" She said, rushing through the snow and flattening the old man in a hug.</p><p>"Uh can I just point out that he's not your uncle?" Zuko asked, sticking his index finger in the air.</p><p>"I will Agni Kai you for him!" She said before sticking her finger in the air too, it was no accident that it wasn't her index finger either.</p><p>Zuko would have pointed out that you needed to be a Firebender to Agni Kai, but he didn't want to push her any further, "Sharing's cool." He stuck his hands in the air defensively.</p><p>The group, or GAang, as Sokka liked to call them, walked into the igloo, Iroh once again pulled out his travel tea set and poured everyone a cup.</p><p>"What are you guys doing here?" Katara asked, sipping her cup of Jasmine.</p><p>"Azula escaped, she burnt my palace to the ground, my father's gone too." Zuko hung his head in shame.</p><p>"That's impossible." Sokka said, waving his hand in front of the still petrified Suki's face. "Azula went crazy, her defeat broke her. There's no way she could have devised an escape plan and successfully pulled it off."</p><p>"Anything's possible. They could've accidentally left her door unlocked, could've been an inside job, anything." Zuko sighed. "But I need your help. All of you."</p><p>"I'll wake up Appa." Aang said.</p><p>"By the way, Sokka, my men found these when they were cleaning up the Airship crash site earlier this year, figured you might want them back." Zuko took a large bag off his back and tossed it to Sokka.</p><p>Sokka excitedly ripped it open, "BOOMERANG!!!" He shouted loud enough to un-petrify Suki. He dug deeper into the bag, "SPACE SWORD!!!" He said, gripping his old weapons in an uncomfortably long embrace.</p><p>With that they headed off, Iroh traveled by ship because of his airsickness, it also took a heavy load off Appa since the ship could carry their supplies. Their plan was to regroup at the Southern Air Temple.</p><p>~</p><p>Zuko shivered sitting on the steps of the temple, "It doesn't make sense. We're higher up which means we're closer to the sun, so why the hell is it so cold up here?" He asked, rubbing his arms.</p><p>"Zuko, what did I tell you about swearing?" Iroh asked, glaring down at him.</p><p>"Sorry uncle."</p><p>"Yeah Zuko, quit being such a damn crybaby and man the hell up!" Toph punched him in the arm and rushed up the stairs, "This place is amazing!" Her voice echoed through the halls.</p><p>Zuko rolled his eyes, glancing around the frigid temple, looking for any sign of warmth, then he spotted it, the big furry Sky Bison he had spent the last day sitting on. He rushed over to Appa who was sleeping after the long ride and cuddled between two of his legs, then Momo jumped onto his arm, clinging to it like a tree.</p><p>"Well isn't this cute?" Sokka asked as he looked over the trio.</p><p>"Shut up, Sokka." Zuko said.</p><p>"Or what? Are you gonna Jerkbend at me? Katara come look at this!"</p><p>"What is it?!" She jogged over and the sour-faced Zuko caught her eye, "Now that's truly adorable." She snickered.</p><p>"Laugh all you want but at least I'm warm." Zuko responded.</p><p>The laughter managed to attract more people and pretty soon everyone was laughing at the scene, even Mai who they had never seen laugh, and Toph who couldn't even see what was going on.</p><p>Zuko changed the subject, "We shouldn't stay here too long, I need to pick up a friend in the Earth Kingdom."</p><p>"Wait.... <em>You </em>have friends?" Sokka asked.</p><p>"I have lots of friends." Zuko shot back.</p><p>"Really? How many?" Katara pressed.</p><p>"Lots!" He shouted. "Look the point is that I need this guy's help if we want this to go smoothly. Now can we get going? This weather is freezing my di--"</p><p>"Okay we get it!" Katara interrupted. "We can go see this imaginary friend of yours."</p><p>With that they were gone, heading for the Earth Kingdom city of Chin to pick up Zuko's supposed friend.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Supposed Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p> </p><p>Aang looked down nervously at the city of Chin, last time he was here he almost got boiled in oil and was worried that them seeing him again would spark up old habits. The chance of that happening was low but he still took precautions and put a hooded cloak on.</p><p>"So who is this guy? Another Jerkbender like you?" Sokka asked.</p><p>"No. He's not a bender at all, not exactly anyway. He's from another country off the coast of the Fire Nation. He's a swordfighter and likes to call himself a 'Swordbender.'" Zuko said.</p><p>"HAH! I told you Swordbending was a real thing! I like this guy already." Sokka smiled triumphantly.</p><p>Zuko rolled his eyes.</p><p>Aang landed on the outskirts of the city so no one would see Appa and blow their unneeded cover. Zuko led the rest of the GAang to a small house close to the center and knocked on the door.</p><p>"It's open!" A voice called from inside.</p><p>Zuko pushed the door open and walked through, he walked through the halls of the small house into a wide room where a boy his age was training, swinging a sword around and delivering strategically placed cuts on a bamboo dummy, the dummy fell apart and Zuko greeted the boy, "Hey Akeno." He waved.</p><p>The boy turned and swung his sword, stopping it an inch from Zuko's Adam's apple, "Zuko, nice to see you again." He smiled, sheathing his blade.</p><p>"I need your help." Zuko stated.</p><p>"With what? You didn't start hunting the Avatar again did you?" The boy asked jokingly.</p><p>"Not exactly." Zuko nodded behind him and the GAang walked in.</p><p>"Woah. Sweet place!" Sokka said, examining a sword covered wall and fully stocked kitchen.</p><p>The boy chuckled, "Thanks. I'm Akeno."</p><p>"Akeno, this is Sokka and his sister Katara, they're from the Southern Water Tribe. Toph Beifong, Suki and Aang, he's the Avatar. And of course you know Mai and Ty Lee." Zuko gestured to the GAang.</p><p>"Nice to meet you all." Akeno said, wiping the sweat off his face. "Where's your uncle?"</p><p>"He stayed with our ship." Zuko said.</p><p>~</p><p>The GAang sat in the stranger's living room sipping tea. "These are some neat swords. I've never seen any designed like this." He gestured to the wall which was covered in swords that had double-edged triangular blades and wide cross-guards (Euroupeon style longswords and arming swords if you couldn't tell but since Europe isn't a thing in this universe I did my best to sum it up.)</p><p>"They're native to my country." Akeno stood, walking over to the wall.</p><p>"Your country?" Sokka asked.</p><p>"It's a small island off the coast of the Fire Nation, it's nearly impossible to find. We make our swords in this style because it offers superior offense and defense compared to the Katana." Akeno sipped his tea.</p><p>"No kidding? Did you make all of these?" Sokka asked, wide-eyed.</p><p>"Yeah, except this one." He gestured to a small arming sword in the corner. "It was on my boat with me when I came here."</p><p>"How'd you get here?" Katara asked. </p><p>"It's a long story. Let me explain, no there is too much. Let me sum up. One day I was out fishing and I got caught in a storm, I got knocked out by something caught in the wind and then I woke up on the Fire Nation shores, luckily Zuko found me and got me out of the shipwreck, I lived in Fire Nation until he got banished then I moved here so he could visit me, which he <em>never did." </em>Akeno said, the last part coming out through gritted teeth, his brown eyes narrowing in Zuko's direction.</p><p>"Hey I was too busy hunting Aang!" Zuko said defensively.</p><p>"Too busy to at least send a postcard? I mean I know you only had one messenger hawk but it isn't like you were writing messages home to your father." Akeno scoffed. He heard Zuko mutter something but given the fact that there were children present he wasn't going to ask what. He instead turned his attention back to Sokka, "So where'd you get that nice sword?" He asked.</p><p>"Oh I made it myself, while I was studying under master Piandao." Sokka said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms with his signature 'no big deal' look.</p><p>"Oh him!" Akeno burst loud enough to startle Sokka into falling over. "The one guy in the Four Nations I couldn't beat."</p><p>"No one else could either." Zuko said.</p><p>"Yeah didn't he kill like five hundred of your grandpa's soldiers?" Sokka asked, grabbing Zuko by the shoulder.</p><p>"One hundred." Zuko said.</p><p>"So what do you need help with?" Akeno asked.</p><p>"You remember my crazy sister?" Zuko asked.</p><p>"The one who you set me up on a date with and she nearly burned my head off when I told her I didn't like extra spicy fire flakes?"</p><p>"Yep." Zuko said casually.</p><p>"What about her?"</p><p>"She kinda escaped the asylum and is now wreaking havoc on the Fire Nation. We need all the help we can get and I figured since I left you out of the big fight last time I'd include you now." Zuko said with a thoughtful smile.</p><p>"A battle against your mentally unstable sister that may be the death of me?" Akeno mulled it over, "Sounds baller I'm in." </p><p>"WAIT!" Sokka shouted way louder than he needed to. "Before we do anything else we're going to have a three-way sword-ni kai."</p><p>Zuko smacked his forehead. "For the last time Swordbending is not a--"</p><p>"HAH! I told you Swordbending was a real thing! I like this guy already." Akeno smiled triumphantly.</p><p>"Let's just get this over with." Zuko frowned, unsheathing his broadswords (which he was very skilled with) and following Akeno and Sokka to the back yard of the house.</p><p>The rest of the GAang watched at the side as the three immature, idiotic, possibly suicidal teenage boys squared.... or triangled up on opposite sides of the yard.</p><p>"Aang, count us down." Sokka said, unsheathing his space sword.</p><p>"Okay. Three, two, one." He used his Airbending to blow out a very loud whistle and the three boys charged at each other with no regard for theirs or anyone else's safety.</p><p>The three hacked and slashed and diced and jabbed amongst themselves in an effort to get the upper hand and it ended in a standoff. Zuko holding off the two with each broadsword (which he was very skilled with) and Sokka and Akeno seemingly having made a nonverbal alliance to take down the new Fire Lord.</p><p>"Well that was.... anticlimactic." Katara said.</p><p>"Yeah! I'm blind and even I thought that was boring!" Toph said, crossing her arms. "No blood or anything?" She blew a raspberry at them.</p><p>"I'll get you next time." The three boys said in unison.</p><p>With that the GAang and their newest member headed to the ship and turned around to go back to the Fire Nation.</p>
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